jung

I think Vaz does have one someplace...full of negativity and various and sundry crap. Nobody wants to see that thread brought back to the top of the list I imagine.

Isn't Ben still screwing around in Toronto Management. Maybe the Jays trade off Giles for Fat Panda. It will be the Ben/Panda revival tour.

They would be out of their minds not to wait for multiple offers to develop for those two players.

And they can't trade both because both are playing (if you want to call it that). It would have to be Beni and a bucket of crap to go with him or Chavis and a bigger bucket of crap. Maybe Pearce will be healthy enough to be traded by the deadline. Trade him with Beni and buckets of crap. I didn't want Pearce signed for this year anyway. So get him outta' here. Fine with that. But frankly, I think they need pitching help before any teams will be looking to auction off their top trade prospects and that is what it is going to be, an auction.

Stroman??? What do we have that could grab up Stroman from Toronto. I have just argued in the last 24 hours that we could not get Giles out of Toronto. The Jays will hold onto their top movable assets until there are multiple bidders for them. Giles is likely at the top of that list and if they want to move off Stroman he would be right behind him. Worse than that we need pitching help like just about immediately and there is simply no way we have anything that will attract the Jays to move off their top movable assets right now.

Pearce, back injury in Pawtucket...delayed another month to return. Not sure anybody should care at this point...but there it is.

Not sure what moon would think, but I don't think Beni brings back what Betts would bring back. Betts is the reigning MVP. There is PR value atop of everything else for bringing in the reigning MVP to play for your team whoever you are. I don't think the two would be comparable. Beni is two years younger and that would help the Sox in a trade involving Beni. By the same token betting on Mookie for at least the term of their control of him is not a terrible bet. Betting on Beni improving significantly from here is IMO a terrible bet as his overall game is simply too deficient. He is not Moncada for example. Not close. I think we are entering a period that will require Sox Baseball Ops to think more like most teams have to think, not because we don't have money but because DD has spent it already and the farm system cupboard is pretty barren. DD has already used that up and I simply do not see Henry being forced to panic mode. He is running an entertainment enterprise now....not a baseball franchise and he has got that pretty well in hand. All Henry has to do is win one of these things once every 8-10 years and he is fine. Still hard to do by the way. I think Henry will continue to allow DD to spend all the way up to the lux tax limit and even allow him to exceed it in selected years. But exceeding will be the exception not the norm. Hence they have to optimize their payroll where and when they can and when glaring holes appear in rosters, if a player is not showing them the kind of advancement they need, if there is a deal out there, make that player not advancing sufficiently somebody else's job to fix. As for Josh Riddick, Christ I probably morned the loss of Riddick more than anybody did and Beni is not Riddick either. This is the first I have heard of having any brothers that morned the loss of Josh Riddick. Are we saying Beni is Riddick's equal in the field or ever will be? Good luck with that one. X and Beni are not comparable either. X is the best player on this team currently. He has been and is the most versatile hitter we have combined with above average fielding and he is now the infield coach on the field to boot. He is second now to only one player in ability to hit whatever is thrown at him and not because X has declined. If anything X has improved in that area. Devers is hitting everything that is thrown at him....breaking balls low and inside, breaking balls low and away, FB over the middle of the plate, FB's at the letters. You name it, he is hitting it. So NOOOOOO, I don't think anybody will be recommending they trade X if he slumps next month. I certainly won't be.

He is too resistant to change...that is why I am out of patience with him: - tired of seeing his pop up whaaaa-fests when he is unwilling to do anything about it - definitely tired of these dives to the depths of Beni despair and frustration described by periods when he just does not even try - then you add is middling outfield play and what is there to be patient about

If Erod could only EVER throw three pitches in one stint, he would be awesome. Whatever success he has had in 2018-2019 is totally predicated on his Change passing his Slider like it was standing still. I can dream about ERod being able to throw a Slider and Change and a FB in one starting stint till hell freezes over. He has yet to be able to show that he can in any year that I can remember. It was always FB, a bucket of Sliders and a couple Changes mixed in and now its always FB, a bucket of Changes and a couple Sliders mixed in. That said, Erod is doing part of this with mirrors. LH hitters simply have not recognized that its a Change that he is throwing just off the plate inside. They think it is going to leak back over the inside corner and it doesn't. Once LH hitters catch on to how many Changes he is throwing to them, not sure what will happen with that.

Regardless of the failings in the rotation, I don't think the Sox moving at all to bring in another starter is realistic. Henry is sending "no more money" signals all over the place. Geezus a female dog in heat sends out less scent and signaling that she is prime. Everybody other than Erod is going down around the big three in the rotation and the big three have been babied! So forget more rotation help. Not going to happen. The pen is ridiculous though and not having ANYBODY that can close is laughable. Getting an actual Closer even one that is past his prime would at least give this team a shot. That would seem doable based on the assets the team has...either buy one or get one for a smattering of going nowhere minor leaguers....WHATEVER! Even if Nate makes it back to the pen I don't see him closing.

WHATEVER....at what for us is a most critical part of the season even in trying to make a WC birth much less playing the play in game at home, we don't have enough pitching to fill a thimble AND they keep going down.

So he has 20 doubles in the acknowledged best doubles ballpark in baseball and 7 HR's in the era of the ever more juiced baseball. I would not trade that for a one year addition to the pen or anywhere else for that matter, mainly because i doubt we are going anywhere this season. Trade me a guy that can fill a role I need filled over time given I think DD has spent about all of Henry's money beyond the lux tax limits he is going to be allowed to spend and I am all in. In fact, DD's contract is up in 2020 and I am beginning to wonder if Henry will determine that DD has done his job just the same way DD has always done it and therefore has outlived his future usefulness here. There is simply no indication that DD will not trash your farm system AND your budget in short order and I am not sure Henry wants to manage that process to perpetuity.

I don't see that. Your mileage may vary. That said, since all you have to do is touch the 2019 baseball with any part of the barrel of the bat and its gone even with a one handed swing with all of the hitters strength expended before he ever contacts the baseball, we are certainly promoting the idea of hitting the baseball a long way with a crap swing.

Which is a shame because Closing IS a specific role that not just anybody is capable of filling. I would get us somebody that that at the least the team would feel has a chance at closing out a game. What they have now is either entirely unproven over the course of the season or has not been tested at all in that role or has FAILED MISERABLY in that role.

And they won't be until and unless he shortens his stride and is not so big through the strike zone. Calling his swing Pretty which is not the accepted term to begin with is like calling Ivanka Trump beautiful because she can afford to put 4 and 5 figure clothes over that disproportionate bag-o-doorknobs body of hers.

Yelich actually does have a good swing which is what I would refer to as a sweet or pretty swing. However, before I get too far ahead of myself, all hitters in MLB are benefiting from the ever changing rocket ship baseball and the lack of good pitching across MLB. That includes Yelich. By the way...get a clue OB, the accepted term has forever been "a sweet swing". Pretty swing...Geezus H Cheeerist.

The NESN announcers were promoting the pretty swing nonsense, most specifically OB who would not know a "good" swing if it fell on him attached to a grand piano.

Virtually every AB of his young career broadcast by NESN. Who owns NESN?

I would entertain offers for Betts and would have been entertaining him from the moment he turned down $20M. He is not a $30M player. I would trade Beni ASAP and I would not be looking for a haul for Beni. I would trade Betts for a haul. Failing that, just let Betts play out to FA and let him go. Beni I would get rid of and be happy if I got anything for him that I could use.

Get a relief pitcher that has actually proven he can close, even an over the hill Closer. Cora will have to piece it together from the starter to that Closer just like everybody else does. Giving up runs late in games is one thing. Having your team claw back those runs and pull ahead only to have some s***-head blow it in the ninth is beyond debilitating for a team, the ENTIRE TEAM. We should have enough offense to claw back against what is exceptionally s***** ML pitching across most of MLB baseball. But to be able to claw back and then blow it at the end after 3 hours of effort is criminal. Its unsustainable and NO I am not confident that the solution is bringing Nate back into the bullpen with the intention of eventually having him close.

No, I am saying that Sox PR promoted a fantasy and the kid is living that fantasy. Whether he would have concluded on his own that his stride is too long and his swing is too big....we may never know. I would prefer for his sake and ours that somebody else help him figure it out. There was some gibberish released during one of the NESN broadcasts earlier this year when Beni was in another of his pop up slumps that had not devolved to the point where he is now that the Sox coaching staff told Beni that he was "doing it again" shorten up your stride and cut down on your swing. Lasted about two weeks when he came back from extensive work in the cage. So he HAS been told at least once and probably more than once and the result is .........nothing. He looks like he has a studied and practice and muscle memory prompted metal bat swing. Not sure he will ever be anything more than a hitter that struggles with that forever.

Beni is only a decent fielder. At the plate, his stride is too long and his swing is too big. He is what he is. Sox PR did him no favors promoting the idea of the "Pretty Beni Swing". That swing is killing him more than its helping him. Sox PR has helped to paint him into a PR corner and a performance corner. Well done guys....another feather in your cap. Now he is going through the annual whaaaaaaa period for Beni where he gets frustrated because everybody is hitting but him.....whaaaaaaa. As he has done before he is predetermining he going to swing, no longer picking locations to narrow his focus and he is swinging through everything that he does not pop up. Sorry, they should get him outta' here while they can if they can get a deal that is loaded our way.

I would absolutely love to see Giles here even if his cranky wing IS still an issue (recent news is that its not). Beni...they can have Beni+ for Giles in an instant in my book. But I am afraid that the Jays will wait until there are a number of suiters that come calling for Giles and we will simply be unable to compete for him at that point. There is only one way the Bucket-o-fried chicken Bullpen Bums have a chance and Cora has a chance....that being coming from the back end forward. If you can't Close games and really are pulling names from a hat to get to the Closer, you are frankly dead and too stupid to fall over. A real Closer is ONE player. Heck of a lot easier to deal with this mess getting that one player than the way the Sox have approached it so far. Heck, I would take an over the hill Closer compared to the crap we throw out there every night.

Not when they get too big they don't. Beni is about as far away from Teddy Baseball's swing as it gets. But now we are witnessing another Beni dynamic that is an annual occurrence. This is where he gets frustrated and starts feeling sorry for himself. "Oh gee wiz, everybody is hitting but me.....whaaaaaaaa". He stops looking for pitches in locations and predetermines that he is going to swing and just swings right through pitch after pitch. Its sorta' like he gets tired of his all too familiar post swing pop-up posture and just says f*** it.

Every year his swing always and I do mean always ends up getting too big. I know some think its a pretty swing. I think its ugly as sin because it lies at the very heart of his problem hitting the damn ball.